From: newsdistribution@gaydata.com
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 07:30:44 -0500
Subject: RARE GAY FILM FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN NEW ON VIDEO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 31, 2000
CONTACT: Keith Stone
ICESTORM International, Inc.,
Northampton, MA 01060
(413) 587-9334 or keith@icestorm-video.com
RARE GAY FILM FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN NEW ON VIDEO
Northampton, Mass. - Coming Out, the first and only feature film
produced in East Germany to deal openly with the subject of
homosexuality, is now available on video for the first time to
American audiences. It premiered on November 9, 1989, the exact
evening of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the following year
it was awarded the prestigious Silver Bear Prize at the Berlin
International Film Festival. The new release, due out in video
rental stores in early September, is a remastered version of
the original film with brand-new subtitles.
Never Shown in U.S. Theaters
Directed by the late Heiner Carow, Coming Out stars Matthias
Freihof, Dagmar Manzel and Dirk Kummer. The fact that this film,
a moving story of a young high school teacher coming to terms with
his sexuality, was made and released in a suppressive political
atmosphere is remarkable and was, at the time, groundbreaking.
Since its premiere, the film has toured virtually all over the
world, including such disparate locales as Cairo, Copenhagen,
St. Petersburg, Dublin and Los Angeles (at the Museum of Tolerance),
yet has never had an official North American theatrical release.
As an added bonus, the new video release will include a 12-minute
featurette highlighting the best of East German cinema. In Spring
2001, the DVD version of the film is scheduled for release and will
include, among other unique features, French, Spanish and English
subtitle options.
Hollywood Behind the Wall
ICESTORM International, the leading distributor of films produced
by DEFA, the state-run studios of the former East Germany, is
releasing Coming Out. ICESTORM currently holds the world rights
in all home entertainment media for the entire DEFA collection.
This "unknown" archive of more than 10,000 films produced between
1946 and the 1990s includes an eclectic array of genres produced
behind the Wall and beyond. Included are classic feature films,
amazing productions of fairy tales by the Brothers
Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, "banned films," documentaries
and even a series of Westerns made from the Native American
perspective. ICESTORM works in close association with the DEFA
Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
"What is truly great about Coming Out," says Gerhard Sieber,
President of ICESTORM, "is that it is, first and foremost, a
human story. Any person who has felt the conflicting pangs of
desire and love can relate to this very honest film."
Attention Press: Electronic images are available at icestorm-
video.com under "Press Information" or go directly to:
http://www.icestorm-video.com/com_out_images.cfm.
Screeners are available upon request.
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